INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
An Elementary Grammar with Readings from Syriac Literature
Wheeler M. Thackston
IBEX Publishers Bethesda, Maryland Introduction to Syriac An Elementary Grammar with Readings from Syriac Literature by Wheeler M. Thackston
Copyright © 1999 Ibex Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or retransmitted in any manner whatsoever, except in the form of a review, without written permission from the publisher.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Services—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984
IBEX Publishers Post Office Box 30087 Bethesda, Maryland 20824 U.S.A. Telephone: 301-718-8188 Facsimile: 301-907-8707 www.ibexpub.com
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Thackston, W.M. (Wheeler Mcintosh), 1944- Introduction to Syriac : an elementary grammar with readings from Syriac literature / by W. M. Thackston. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-936347-98-8 1. Syriac language —Grammar. I. Title. PJ5423T53 1999 492'.382421~dc21 99-39576 CIP Contents
PREFACE vii
PRELIMINARY MATTERS I. The Sounds of Syriac: Consonants and Vowels x II. Begadkepat and the Schwa xii III. Syllabification xiv IV. Stress xv V. Vocalic Reduction and Prosthesis xv VI. The Syriac Alphabet xvii VII. Other Orthographic Devices xxi VIII. Alphabetic Numerals xxiii IX. Comparative Chart of Semitic Consonants xxiv X. Preliminary Exercise xxvi
LESSON ONE 3 §1.1 The Emphatic State §1.2 Gender §1.3 The Perfect of the Simple Verb § 1.4 The Proclitics
LESSON Two 9 §2.1 The Perfect: Full Inflection §2.2 Direct Objects
LESSON THREE 14 §3.1 Pronominal Enclitics I §3.2 Predication of Existence
m INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
and the Expression of Possession §3.3 Relative Clauses
LESSON FOUR 19 §4.1 Possessive Pronouns §4.2 Noun-Noun Possession §4.3 The Pronoun Koll §4.4 Pronominal Anticipation with Prepositions
LESSON FIVE 24 §5.1 Noun Plurals: Emphatic State
LESSON SIX 28 §6.1 Independent Pronouns §6.2 The Short Pronouns as Copulas §6.3 Demonstratives
LESSON SEVEN 33 §7.1 Inflection of Ill-Weak Verbs §7.2 The Perfect of Hwd §7.3 The Perfect with Object Suffixes
LESSON EIGHT 38 §8.1 The Active Participles §8.2 Uses of the Participle §8.3 Object Suffixes with the Third-Person Plural Verb
LESSON NINE 44 §9.1 Adjectives §9.2 Pronominal Enclitics II §9.3 Posses• sive Suffixes with Plural Nouns §9.4 Paradigm of ya(h)b
LESSON TEN 51 §10.1 Paradigm of l-y Verbs §10.2 Object Suffixes with the Remaining Persons (Perfect) §10.3 The Construct Sin• gular §10.4 The Construct Plural §10.5 Adjectives in the Construct State §10.6 Adverbs
LESSON ELEVEN 57 §11.1 Paradigm of Hollow Verbs: Perfect §11.2 Paradigm of Geminate Verbs: Perfect §11.3 Paradigm of ll-alap Verbs: Perfect §11.4 The Pleonastic Dative
IV CONTENTS
LESSON TWELVE 62 §12.1 Passive Participles §12.2 Ill-Weak Verbs with Pronominal Objects §12.3 Aba, AM, and Hmd with Pronominal Possessives.
LESSON THIRTEEN 68 §13.1 The Absolute State §13.2 Numbers §13.3 Ordinals. §13.4 The Infinitive: G-Verbs §13.5 Infinitives with Pronominal Objects
LESSON FOURTEEN 77 §14.1 Imperfect and Imperative of G-Verbs: Sound Roots §14.2 Imperfect Inflection of I-n Verbs §14.3 Imperfect of l-alap Verbs §14.4 Imperfect of l-y Verbs §14.5 Imperfect of Ill-Weak Verbs § 14.6 Imperfect of Hollow Verbs § 14.7 Imperfect of Geminate Verbs §14.8 Imperfect of Il-dlap Verbs
LESSON FIFTEEN 86 §15.1 Uses of the Imperfect §15.2 The Imperfect with Enclitic Objects §15.3 Suffix Pronouns with Ill-Weak Im• perfect §15.4 Imperatives with Suffix Pronouns §15.5 Im• peratives of III-Weak Roots with Suffix Pronouns §15.6 Nouns in -u and -i
LESSON SIXTEEN 94 §16.1 The Pael Conjugation §16.2 Pael Conjugation: Vari• ous Verb Types
LESSON SEVENTEEN 100
§17.1 The Aphel Conjugation 17.2 Aphel Conjugation: Various Verb Types
LESSON EIGHTEEN 106 §18.1 Medio-passive Verbs: Ethpeel, Ethpaal & Ettaphal INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
Conjugations §18.2 The Ethpeel Conjugation §18.3 Metathesis in Ethpeel §18.4 Ethpeel with Various Verb Types
LESSON NINETEEN 113
§ 19.1 The Ethpaal Conjugation § 19.2 Metathesis in Ethpaal § 19.3 Ill-Weak Verbs in Ethpaal
LESSON TWENTY 119 §20.1 The Ettaphal Conjugation §20.2 Adjectives/Nouns in -and §20.3 Substantivation of Participles §20.4 Abstraction of Substantivized Participles §20.5 Other Verbal Forms
APPENDIX A: Verbal Inflections 128
APPENDIX B: States of the Noun 142
APPENDIX C: Verbs with Enclitic Objects 144
READINGS From the P5/rfa 151 From Pseudo-Callisthenes' Legend of Alexander 154 The First Discovery of the True Cross 157 The Teaching of the Apostle Thaddeus 162 The Martyrdom of St. Barbara 169 From The Tale of Sindban the Wise 173 From The Cave of Treasures 179 From Kalilag and Demnag 181 From a Metrical Sermon by Ephraem Syrus 182 From The Syriac Book of Medicines 184 A Flood in Edessa 186 From the Chronicon Syriacum of Barhebraeus 188
SYRIAC-ENGLISH VOCABULARY 193
INDEX 227
VI Preface
SYRIAC IS THE ARAMAIC DIALECT of Edessa, now Urfa in Eastern Turkey, an important center of early Christianity in Mesopotamia. Edessene Syriac was rapidly accepted as the literary language of all non-Greek eastern Christianity and was the primary vehicle for the Christianization of large parts of central and south-central Asia. Even after the rupture in the fifth century between the monophysitic Jacobite church of Syria and the Nestorian Church of the East, which coincided geographically with the Persian Empire, Syriac remained the liturgical and theological language of both these "national" churches. Today it is the classical tongue of the Nestori- ans and Chaldeans of Iran and Iraq and the liturgical language of the Jacobites of Eastern Anatolia and the Maronites of Greater Syria. As a result of the far-reaching missionary activity of Syriac speakers, the script of Mongolian even today is a version of the Syriac alpha• bet written vertically d la chinoise instead of horizontally. Syriac is also the language of the Church of St. Thomas on the Malabar Coast of India. Syriac belongs to the Levantine (northwest) group of the central branch of the West Semitic languages together with all other forms of Aramaic (Babylonian Aramaic, Imperial Aramaic, Palestinian Aramaic, Samaritan, Mandaean) and Canaanite (Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Phoenician). Also to the central branch belongs the North Arabian group, which comprises all forms of Arabic. Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) and many modern Ethiopian and South Arabian languages fall into the south branch of West Semitic. More distantly related are the East Semitic Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian)
vu INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC and Eblaite. Syriac literature flourished from the third century on and boasts of writers like Ephraem Syrus, Aphraates, Jacob of Sarug, John of Ephesus, Jacob of Edessa, and Barhebraeus. After the Arab con• quests and the advent of Islam in the seventh century to the area over which eastern Christianity held sway, Syriac became the language of a tolerated but disenfranchised and diminishing community and be• gan a long, slow decline both as a spoken tongue and as a literary medium in favor of the dominant Arabic. Although there are a few scattered pockets of Aramaic speakers left in remote areas of the Near East, there are no immediate descendants of Syriac spoken to• day. Of major importance is the role Syriac played as the intermediary through which Greek learning and thought passed to the Islamic world, for it was Syriac-speaking translators who first turned the corpus of late Hellenistic science and philosophy from Syriac into Arabic at the Dar al-Hikma in caliphal Baghdad. Syriac translations also preserve much Middle Iranian wisdom literature that has been lost in the original Persian. In this text the language is presented both in the Syriac script, as it will always be seen, and in transcription, which is given so that the pronunciation of individual words and the structure of the language as a whole may be represented as clearly as possible. As is the case with most Semitic languages, Syriac leaves so much of a word un• written that to read an unvocalized text requires a good deal of deci• pherment on the part of the reader. It is essential therefore for the learner to become accustomed as early as possible to recognizing words, along with all their potential readings, from the written con• sonantal skeleton.
After the first few lessons, the majority of the sentences in the exercises—and all of the readings in later lessons—are taken directly from the PSittd, the standard Syriac translation of the Bible. It is rec• ognized on the one hand that most students learn Syriac as an ad• junct to biblical or theological studies and will be interested primarily
vui PREFACE in this text; it is difficult, on the other hand, to overestimate the stylistic influence of the Bible on Syriac authors in general. Biblical passages also have the advantage of being familiar, to some degree or other, to most English-speaking students. Sections II and V of Preliminary Matters must be studied thor• oughly before proceeding to the grammar because an understanding of the principles of begadkepat and the schwa, as well as vocalic re• duction, is mandatory before any substantial grammatical explana• tions can be given. There is a preliminary exercise on p. xxvi; it should be xione after one has become familiar with the contents of section II of Preliminary Matters (pp. xxii-xiv). The answers to the exercise are given on p. 224, as are transcriptions of the exercises for lessons one through five. These are intended not as a crutch but as a check for readings and spirantizations. After the twenty lessons of grammar have been finished, the learner should proceed to the section of Readings beginning on page 151, where a few biblical passages and some specimens of religious and secular literature are given. All words that occur in the reading section are contained in the Vocabulary. For many of those whose interest in Syriac stems from biblical studies or from the history of eastern Christianity, Syriac may be their first Semitic language. Every effort has been made in the pre• sentation of the grammar to keep the Semitic structure of the lan• guage in the forefront and as clear as possible for those who have no previous experience with languages of that family. Syriac is struc• turally perhaps the simplest of all the Semitic languages. It is free of the complexities of classical Arabic, has little of the unpredictability of Biblical Hebrew, and is not subject to the great dialectal and re• gional differences of Jewish and Imperial Aramaic.
A chart of correspondences among Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac is given on p. xxv for the benefit of those who are approaching Syriac with a knowledge of one or more of the Semitic languages. Those who have not studied Hebrew or Arabic may safely ignore this section.
IX Preliminary Matters
I. THE SOUNDS OF SYRIAC
Consonants. The consonants of Syriac are as follows.
STOPS p the p in 'pit' d the d in 'den' b the 6 in 'bit' k the c in 'cave' t the t in 'ten' g the g in 'gave'
SPIRANTS p the/in 'fan' tive, pronounced like a scraped k but slightly further b the V in 'van' back in the throat; the point t the th in 'thing' of articulation is against the soft palate [x]. d the th in 'then' g the voiced counterpart to the k the ch of German Bach, spirantized k above, a voiced Scottish 'loch,' and the Ara• velar fricative, the Arabic ^, bic ^, a voiceless velar frica- rather like a gargle [y].
VELARIZED CONSONANTS t articulated like t but with the tongue raised high against PRELIMINARY MATTERS
the velar ridge; accompanied toward the velar ridge; s also by a constriction in the throat has a constriction in the as a secondary articulation, throat as a secondary articu• like the Arabic [t] lation, like the Arabic [s]. The European tradition s articulated like s but, as with mispronounces as "ts." ; above, the tongue is raised
FRICATIVES s the s in 'sip' S the sh in 'ship' z the z in 'zip'
GLOTTO-PHARYNGEALS h the h in 'hat' father forward in the throat with the throat muscles the glottal stop, as in the di• severely constricted to pro• alect pronunciation of "bo'l" duce a low hissing sound for "bottle" and "li'l" for with no trace of scraping "little." Although glottal stop (the Arabic ^). is usually lost in Syriac un• less it is doubled or intervo• the voiced pharyngeal frica• calic, it is an integral feature tive, in which the vocal of the language's morpho- cords vibrate with the mus• phonemic system. cles of the throat tightly constricted; correct pronun• h a voiceless pharyngeal frica• ciation is something approx• tive [h], articulated like h but imating a gag (the Arabic ^).
NASALS, CONTINUANTS, SEMIVOWELS m the m in 'moon' Italian r, not the constriction of American English n the n in 'noon' w the w in 'wet' / the / in 'leaf y the y in 'yet' r the flap of the Spanish and
XI INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
Vowels. Syriac has the following vowels: a short a, like the o in 'dot' in Western Syriac this vowel merged with / everywhere d long d: in the Eastern Syriac and is pronounced like the ee tradition d is pronounced like the a in 'father'; in the m see Western tradition it is pro• i long I, like the ee in 'see' nounced like the o in 'bone' o both short and long o are e short e, like the e of 'debt' pronounced in East Syriac like the o in 'bone'; in West e long e, like the ay of 'day' Syriac o merged with u ev• ey also long e, used to show erywhere. The long d is used certain morphological forms to indicate an irreducible*. e in Eastern Syriac this vowel M long a, like the oo in 'moon' is pronounced exactly like e;
II. BEGADKEPAT AND THE SCHWA The stops p, b, t, d, k and g and their spirantized counterparts (p^ b, t, d, k, g), known collectively as the begadkepat letters, occur in mutu• ally exclusive environments. (a) Only stops occur doubled, never spirants, i.e., -pp-, -bb-, etc., not -pp-, -bb-, etc., as in neppel 'he falls,' saggi 'much,' and meddem 'thing.' (b) The stops occur word-initially when preceded by a word ending in a consonant. The stops occur within a word at the begin• ning of a syllable (see section III) that is immediately preceded by one other consonant that is preceded by a vowel, as in malkd 'king,' men her 'from my son,' and Iwdtgabrd 'unto the man.' (c) When preceded by any vowel, even across word boundaries.
xn PRELIMINARY MATTERS the Stops are spirantized, as in neplet (neplet) T fell,' hdpek-nd (hdpek-nd) 'I am returning,' ebad (ebad) 'he perished,' bnd baytd (bndbaytd) 'he built a house,' and nektob (nektob) 'he writes.' "Any vowel" in the above definition includes the schwa (a), an unpronounced "relic," the position of which is almost entirely predictable: (1) In any word-initial cluster of two consonants, a schwa is assumed between the two, e.g., ktab ^ kdtab 'he wrote,' '^bad -> '^dbad 'he made,' and tpalleg tdpalleg 'you divide.'
The addition of a proclitic to such words spirantizes the first letter. The second letter, already spirantized, remains spirantized. For example, ktab 'he wrote' begins with two consonants; there• fore, a schwa falls between the k and the t, spirantizing the t, and the b is spirantized by the vowel that precedes it: katab. The ad• dition of a proclitic like da- (da-ktab 'he who wrote') results in the spirantization of the k, and the t and b remain spirantized as before: da-ktab. If another proclitic like w- is added (w-da-ktab 'and he who wrote'), a schwa is assumed between the w and the d, spirantizing the d: wd-da-ktab. (2) In any cluster of three consonants, a schwa is assumed between the second and third consonants, e.g., madbrd mad- b9rd 'wilderness,' hallket -> halhket 'I walked,' atttd ^ att9td 'woman,' and makkkat -> makkdkat 'she humbled.' The existence of the schwa is so entirely predictable that its use will be dispensed with in this book. The few exceptions that occur, mainly for historical reasons, will be noted. Rule (a) does not apply across morphological boundaries. For instance, in the word baytd 'house,' the initial b- is a stop when the word is sentence-initial or preceded immediately by a word that ends in a consonant. When a proclitic like the preposition b- is added, the second b is spirantized by applying rule c(l), giving b-baytd 'in the house.' If another proclitic, such as da-, is added, the resulting da-b-
xni INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
baytd will have the first b spirantized by the vowel of da-. Doubled spirants occur only across morphological boundaries or as a result of vocalic reduction—never word-internally. There are two important and constant exceptions to the begad• kepat rules: (1) The -t- of the feminine termination -t_d (see §1.2) is always spirantized, whether it conforms to the begadkepat rules or not—^for instance amtd 'maidservant.' The only exception to this rule occurs when the feminine -td is preceded immediately by t, as in mdittd (with nonspirantized doubled t). (2) The pronominal enclitics of the second-person plural, mas• culine -kon and feminine -ken, always have spirantized -k-. In addition, certain verb-forms have endings not conditioned by the begadkepat rules. These will be noted as they occur.
III. SYLLABIFICATION Every syllable in Syriac begins with one and only one consonant, which is necessarily followed by a vowel (long, short, or schwa). Any two-consonant cluster is then broken between the two because no syllable may begin with more than one consonant. Clusters of three consonants have an implied schwa between the second and third consonants (see c(2) above) and are therefore treated as two- consonant clusters. In words that begin with a vowel, the initial vowel is reckoned a glottal stop plus vowel; where it occurs, the glottal stop is treated like any other consonant. Examples: malkd (mal-kd), turd (tu-rd), Smayyd (Sa-may-yd), emar ('e-mar), malktd (mal-kd-td), madbrd (mad-bd-rd, sleqt (sd-leqt), hakkim (hak-kim). Syllables ending in a vowel are called "open"; those that end in a consonant are called "closed."
XIV PRELIMINARY MATTERS
IV. STRESS Stress may fall on any of the final three syllables in a word. (1) Ultimate stress. Any final syllable (ultima) that is closed and contains a long vowel is stressed, as in hakkim (hak-kim'), nebnon (neb-non), bdneyn (bd-neyn), saddarndk (sad-dar-ndk'), bndt (bd- ndf), hzayt (hd-zayf), qatluh (qat-luh'), sappirdn (sap-pi-rdn). (2) Penultimate stress. If the final syllable is not stressed, then the next to last syllable (penultima) receives stress if it contains a long vowel or is closed, e.g., malkd (mal'-kd), bdne (bd'-ne), emret (em'-ret), qatleh (qaf-leh), qtalton (qd-taV-ton), attat (at'-tat). (3) Antepenultimate stress. If the criteria set forth in (1) and (2) above are not met, then stress recedes to the syllable before the penultimate, the antepenultimate, e.g., madbra (mxid'-bd-rd), atttd (at'-t9-td), malktd (mal'-ka-td), etqtel (et'-q9-tel). In no instance may an open syllable with a short vowel be stressed. In such a situation stress falls forward to the next stress- able syllable, as emar (e-mar'), hzd (hd-zd'), end (e-nd'), qtal (qd- taV).
V. VOCALIC REDUCTION AND PROSTHESIS An important element of Syriac phonology is the principle of retro• gressive vocalic reduction. Simply stated, any short vowel (a, e, o) in an open syllable is reduced to zero or schwa (ICvl -> ICvl ^ ICI). Such reduction is always calculated retrogressively, i.e., from the end of the word back toward the beginning. Examples: qdtel + -in ^ *qd-te-lin -> qdtlin; nektob + -un ^ *nek-to-bun -* nektbun; saddar + -dk -» *Sad-da-rdk saddrdk; ta'^'^el + -an -> *ta'^-'^e-lan ^ ta^Han. Words are immune to vocalic reduction in the following cases: (1) with the optional third-person plural perfect endings -un
XV INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
and -en (see §1.3); (2) with the singular copulas -u and -i (see §6.2); (3) in syllables resulting from the loss of glottal stop, e.g., Se 'let ^ selet. The principle of prosthesis is as follows: wherever vocalic re• duction would give a glottal stop a schwa, the schwa is replaced with the vowel e and the glottal stop is then dropped (C'C -> C'eC CeC). For example, ne^al + -un -> *neS-'a-lun -> *nes'lun -> *neS'elun -» neSelun, and *'aniar-> *'mar^ *'emar^ emar. Similarly when the two "weak" consonants w and y occur in a position that would require them to take schwa, they become the full vowels u and i respectively, e.g., *hadwtd -» *hadw3td ^ hadutd, *yda'^ *ydda'^ -* ida'^, *etyled *etydled -> etiled. Syllables resulting from such changes are immune to vocalic reduction.
XVI PRELIMINARY MATTERS
VI. THE SYRIAC ALPHABET The Syriac alphabet, written from right to left, was developed from the Aramaic alphabet and, like Arabic, is basically a cursive script, i.e., most letters are joined one to another within a word. All letters connect from the right, and all but eight letters (indicated by asterisks below) connect forward to the left. Most of the various forms of a given letter are quite similar; only kdp and nun have wildly divergent forms. There are three varieties of Syriac script in use, Estrangela, Nes• torian and Jacobite. Because of its linear simplicity and elegance, Estrangela has much to recommend it and has been chosen as the basic script for this book. The Estrangela letters are as follows:
ARAMAIC HNAL/ALONE INITIAL/MEDIAL NAME VALUE EQUIVALENT FORM FORM OF LHriHR
<< dlap* -d -i .a bet b •A A gdmal 8 T n dalat* d n hit* h 1 Cl wdw* w, o, u r zayn* z n hit h CD \> K tit t 1 yod y, i, e D kdp k A Idmad I 0 mim m 2 nun n 0 semkat s
xvn INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
.a pe p _s: sdde* s P u qop q 1 res* r
it JX. sin S n taw* t Plus one optional digraph: «n taw-dlap* td The Nestorian (East Syriac) letters are as follows. Note part larly the dlap and the various forms of kdp.
ALONE FINAL MEDL\L INIl'IAL NAME
U 2 dlap bet
•\ -V -V •\ gdmal ddlat 07 het 0 wdw » zayn het V V -V- V tet — — yod kdp Idmad -p_ Jo mim
V r- -•»- nun sa semkat 'e pe sdde
xvni PRELIMINARY MATTERS
_xi_ J3 qop a res —3— a. sin A_ A taw Vu raw (alternative') Al if' Idmad-dlap The Jacobite (West Syriac) letters are as follows. Note particu• larly the various forms of dalat, reS, kdp, and taw and the double lines of the final ^e and Idmad.
ALONE HNAL MEDL\L ESfmAL NAME
L 1 dlap bet gdmal
> ddlat on- on het o_ O wdw )- ) zayn
• , het 4 4 tet — — yod kdp \ Idmad ^- mim r- _j_ J nun sa -IS- a semkat 'e pe i- i sdde
Only when word final and connected to preceding letter.
XIX INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC
Si XL _Qu qop
JL JL- -JL- JL Sin N_ L taw and the special digraph for an initial alap-lamad: _^ alap-lamad As in most Semitic alphabets, the graphic system basically repre• sents the consonants. The short vowels a and e are not at all repre• sented graphically. Alap represents (1) all initial vowels, as in <:^\ 'in a few words e is spelled with alap, as «C^ XX PRELIMINARY MATTERS d, as in or hd (also represents Greek a) _ e, as in aj he (also Greek e") e and ey, as in -07 he and /ie>' (also Greek ei) _ e,' as in o7 and -07 he (also Greek 77) - /, as in /«• (also Greek t) b o, as in boi /lo, /lo (also Greek o and 0 «, as in /IM (also Greek v and 01/) In some fully vocalized Nestorian texts the diphthong aw is consis• tently pointed dw, as lio^ for yawmd. The West Syrian (Jacobite) convention uses the "Greek" vowels as follows. In general, the vowels are written over short letters and upside down under tall letters, but they can be placed in either posi• tion with any letter. 1 a (ptdhd), as in on ha and L ta 1 d(zqdpd), as in on M and \ td (pronounced ho and to) 1 e (rbdsd), as in 01 he and I te -T / (hbdsd), as in -on hi and -i ti Qu u C^sdsd), as in oon hu and ot tu In the JacobiteAVest Syriac tradition, original o-vowels are marked with a dot above the wdw, and original M-vowels with a dot below, even though the two vowels merged as u. For example, ;OQDJ nqum (originally nqum), but^oLj ne'^'^ul (originally ne'^'^ol). VII. OTHER ORTHOGRAPHIC DEVICES (1) Linea occultans, a line drawn over or under a letter to indicate 'e is usually, but not always, spelled with a yod; some words omit the yod. XXI INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC (a) assimilation of that letter to the following or preceding letter, as in ^hiL^ mdittd 'city' and iA,<< ezzet 'I went.' (b) the loss of initial dlap and he in pronunciation, as in < cm haw 'that' even hu 'he' < xxn PRELIMINARY MATTERS with consistency. (4) Gemination of Consonants. There is no device in Syriac or• thography to indicate gemination (doubling) of consonants. In West Syriac true consonantal gemination was probably lost long ago; in East Syriac, on the other hand, gemination is traditionally retained and will be so indicated in the present transcription. There does exist a device for marking the spirantization and non- spirantization of the begadkepat consonants, and this may inciden• tally indicate the doubling of one of these consonants. (a) qussdyd, in West Syriac a small dot above the letter, and in East Syriac a small oblique line above the letter (j b). It indi• cates that the begadkepat consonants are stops. (b) rukkdkd, in West Syriac a small dot beneath the letter, and in East Syriac a small oblique line beneath the letter (js b). It indicates the spirantization of the begadkepat consonants, as in ^s/^ktab 'he wrote' and jaai^/ktektob 'she writes.' Neither quSsdyd nor rukkdkd will be used in this book. VIII. ALPHABETIC NUMERALS In Syriac, as in most other Semitic languages, the letters of the alphabet are also used as numerals, as follows: LETTER NUMERICAL VALUE << 1 ^ 2 -A 3 n 4 xxni INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC 6 1 7 8 9 10 20 A 30 40 50 60 70 .a 80 90 100 \ 200 300 400 Compound numbers are expressed decimally from right to left as .n. for 12 and c\\ for 236. Numbers over 400 use ^and tp as 500 and 600, &c. << is used for 1000. Therefore, 1999 is expressed as ^<<. IX. COMPARATIVE CHART OF SEMITIC CONSONANTS The following chart gives the consonants of Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac as they normally occur in cognate roots. There are, of course, exceptions. XXIV PRELIMINARY MATTERS j A 1 ^ c: C c J J n n n 1 t -\ r 0 to << .3 -A u> n \ 1 qo >J J t o J r 0 CD :i U s P D n 1 \. ^ .a A c\ The Syriac qo that is 0 in Hebrew is ^ in Arabic: Syriac n_\cQ 5GE^ = Hebrew IJD jdgafif = Arabic sajada 'bow down' (Ethiopic rtIA sagada); Syr. <<\.rQ<< a.y/ra = Heb. TP« a^fr = Ar. \ asir- 'prisoner, captive' (Eth. hrt-C dsur), while the Syriac qp that is to in Hebrew is ^ in Arabic: Syr. < xxv INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC dhi'b- = Heb. 2«t z^'eb = Syr. < X. PRELIMINARY EXERCISE In the following text (The Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:9-13), the be• gadkepat consonants are given in boldface. Mark all the spirantized consonants with an underline. Treat the entire passage as continu• ous, i.e. with no significant pauses that would affect spirantization. (Answer given on p. 224.) :^ .i.i'A yin"iT- ^ .a< XXVI PRELIMINARY MATTERS nan yawmdnd. wa-sboq Ian hawbayn. aykannd d-dp hnan Sbaqn l-hayydbayn. w-ld ta'^'^lan l-nesydnd. elldpassdn men bisd. mettul d-dildk-i malkutd w-hayld w-tesbohtd l-'^dlam-'^dlmin. xxvii Lesson One § 1.1 The Emphatic State. All Syriac nouns occur in a basic lexical form, with the termination -a, known traditionally as the emphatic state. Two other states of the noun occur, and these will be taken up later. For the moment, suffice it to say that the emphatic state may mean both the indefinite and the definite in English (e.g., gabrd 'a man' or 'the man,' and ktdbd 'a book' or 'the book'). For translation, context should be the guide to which of the two fits a given occurrence. § 1.2 Gender. There are two grammatical genders in Syriac, mas• culine and feminine. As far as persons and things have natural gen• der ('father, mother, son, daughter, ram, ewe,' etc.), grammatical gender follows natural gender; otherwise there is no clear or consis• tent relationship between grammatical gender and meaning. There is, however, a correspondence between form and gender: almost all feminine nouns are marked by the ending -td in the emphatic state, whereas masculine nouns have no special ending other than the -d termination of the emphatic state. MASCULINE FEMININE <<:a\ai malkd )dng < The only class of exceptions consists of nouns that are feminine in INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC gender but do not have the -td ending, liice idd 'hand,' emmd 'mother,' and <:>.\ § 1.3 The Perfect of the Simple (G) Verb. The basic lexical form of the perfect verb consists of the verbal root, usually triconsonantal, with an appropriate vowel pattern, either CCaC, as in .^Al^ ktab 'he wrote, he has written,' or CCeC, as in jAxa sleq 'he went forth, he has gone forth.' This form (ktab, sleq) is the third-person masculine singular ('he') of the perfect, which usually translates into English as the simple past ('he wrote') or, according to context, the present perfect ('he has written'). It represents the unaugmented base, or ground, form of the verb and has the Semitic designation G (for Grundstamm). The third-person feminine singular adds an ending -at to the ver• bal root. Concurrently all verbs undergo a pattern change from CCaC or CCeC to CeCC-, giving the invariable 3rd-pers. fem. form CeCCat, e.g., i^n^ ketbat 'she wrote, she has written' and AuAco selqat 'she went out, she has gone out.' The third-person masculine plural ('they') has two forms, in more or less free variation, (1) with an unpronounced -w added to the 3rd masc. sing., as in cais^ ktab 'they wrote' and ctAtosleq 'they went out,' and (2) with the ending -un added to the singular, as in ^isj^ ktabun 'they wrote' and ^euaW slequn 'they went out.' There is no discernible difference in meaning between the two forms. The third-person feminine plural ('they') has three alternative forms: (1) identical to the 3rd masc. sing, {jnii^ ktab 'they [f] wrote'), (2) with an unpronounced added to the masc. sing, form (initta ktab 'they [f] wrote'), and (3) with the ending -en added to the masculine singular (;^i(Li ktaben 'they [f] wrote'). In the two latter cases, the sydme dots are placed above the verb to mark plurality. Note that all these forms of the perfect have a dot beneath the verb; this distinguishes the perfect verb from other orthographically similar forms. LESSON ONE The full 3rd-person inflection of a perfect verb will then be either on the patterns of ktab: 3 m ktab ktab(un) f iipi^ ketbat ktab(en) or on the patterns of sleq: 3 m ±A£Q sleq sleq(un) f im\m selqat sleq(en) Verbs agree with their noun subjects in number and gender and may precede or follow the subject indiscriminately: < c\n\iYi < ^uaXttj <<2niA3a malktd selqat. The queen went forth. <<^^\i:i ".riNfn j'/e^ mulkdtd. The queens went forth. The negative of the perfect is made by Id, which precedes the verb: <<->\'n < § 1.4 The Proclitics. The prepositions /- ('to, for' a person, 'to' a place) and b- ('in, at') and the conjunction w- ('and') are proclitic, i.e., they are added orthographically directly to the beginning of the next word. (1) When added to a word that begins with a consonant followed by a vowel, these proclitics are added as they are (i.e., without vowel), as in < and the Schwa, p. xii. (2) When added to a word that begins with two consonants, these proclitics are read la-, ba- and wa-, as in <(:AvLA3a=] ba-mditta 'in the city,' <<^Aiort wa-mdittd 'and the city,' and <<^'ieA la-qritd 'to/for the village.' The addition of any such proclitic to a word be• ginning with a stop results in the spirantization of the stop, as .oait. ktdbd 'the book' > ba-ktdbd 'in the book.' (3) When added to a word that begins with dlap, these proclitics assume the vowel of the dlap, as in <<3a< Vocabulary 1 NOUNS atttd woman, wife gabrd man turd mountain mdittd city malkd king malktd queen '^ammd people VERBS 1 ktab to write npal to fall ,n\m sleq to go up/out "^raq to flee sma'^ to hear ' Verbs in all Semitic languages are traditionally quoted lexically in the 3rd- person masc. sing., the simplest form in which the verb occurs. Only for pur• poses of vocabulary lists is this form equivalent to the English infinitive. LESSON ONE OTHERS ^ ft-(fca-j in, at, with' < Exercise 1 (a) Read and translate the following: <<'iei\y\ 2 <<^:03 ^ eui\:i. 3 Aai 5 <<^^^<< ^sun^sui 6 < < <<^!iLn:33 ^ <<^^ ^ y33 <<^ei\, <<\3L4 Asb 14 'B means 'with' only for instrumentals, as 'he hit me with a stick.' ^Le., men before nouns; menn- before enclitic pronouns (§3.1). INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC <<^n:33 ^ <<'t\'Ta ja'i^ <<\ 15 <<^'i <<33-^ ^ <<^">\'T1 JnriXfVI 19 <<^n4 <<^nLtun\ <<^^<< 2iuAcQ 21 (b) Translate the following into Syriac: 1. The woman fled from the man. 2. The mountain fell. 3. The man did not write to the king. 4. The people did not hear. 5. The man went out from the city to the mountain. 6. The people fled from here. 7. The people wrote to the king and queen. 8. They (m) went out from there. 9. They (f) wrote to the man. 10. The city fell to the king. Lesson Two § 2.1 The Perfect: Full Inflection. Following is the full inflection of the perfect. The masculine-feminine distinction is maintained in both the second and third persons; the first persons are of common gender. Because the third-person masculine singular form is the basic lexical form of the verb, all paradigms begin with that form, in accord with general Semitic usage. SINGULAR PLURAL 3m ktab ktab or ktabun f ketbat ktab or ktaben 2m ktabt ktabton f ktabt ktabten Ic ischium ketbet ktabn or ktabnan Perfect verbs with sound roots are inflected either on the pattern of ktab or on the pattern of sleq, the inflection of which is like that of ktab but the vowel e replaces a in the stem wherever it occurs (sleq, selqat, sleqt, selqet, &c.). The first-person singular form has the dot above the verb to distinguish it from the other forms that are written the same. Verbs with initial alap have the vowel e- initially (see Prelimi• nary Matters, V); otherwise the inflection is absolutely regular, like that of emar 'to say': INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC 3m emar emar(un) f emrat emar(en) 2m emart emarton f emart emarten 1 c emret \^<< emam(an) § 2.2 Direct Objects. The direct object of a transitive verb may op• tionally be indicated by the particle /- (exactly like the preposition) when the object is definite. '^bar l-nahrd. He crossed the river. ^eu^ ^j3a\ ts^V" ^t^^ l-mdran iSo'^ They killed our Lord <<.ua=ia mSihd. Jesus Christ. The /-marker is more consistently found when the object precedes the verb, e.g., o\\,n < Vocabulary 2 NOUNS < VERBS A3<< eZ^ocf to perish A^<< e/za 10 LESSON TWO A,<< ezal to go' ^33<< emar to say, tell Cal about something) ntar to keep jifii «pa^ to go forth2 ^TLs. "^bar to cross; (with '^al) to transgress (the law, a com• mandment, etc.) AV" qtal to OTHERS < Exercise 2 Read in Syriac and translate into English: .^^^in <<\n_:\ tv3<< 1 .<<'\aj^ T^iwVtv 3 .<<'H .<<'\\'T3 < .<<'H 'The / of ezal assimilates to the z wherever they occur together in the perfect inflection. Assimilation is marked with the linea occultans, e.g., A, 11 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC .< .^CcaCCJ^ ^l^TLX < '^<<:3i:A ^^^<< 16 .< .<<^^<< A^ <<'^\-n\ ^^:33<< 25 \^ 12 LESSON TWO 4.1 told the woman about the village. 5. Why did you (m pi) go to the city? 6. They killed the king in the village. 7. The king crossed the river and seized the city. 8. We went forth and up to the mountain in the morning. 9. What did you say to the man? 10.1 told the people about the law. 13 Lesson Three § 3.1 Pronominal Enclitics. Following is the set of pronominal enclitics used with most (but not all) prepositions: 3 m § 3.2 Predication of Existence and Expression of Possession. 14 LESSON THREE For the predication of existence (Enghsh 'there is, there are'), isu< it and the negative inA layt ('there is/are not') are used. Note in the examples below that the order of sentences in which it and layt are used for the predication of existence is fixed as it/layt + prepositional phrase + subject. < § 3.3 Relative Clauses. The relative pronoun is d-, the vocalic pat• terning of which is exactly like that of /- (see §1.4). The relative pro• noun always stands next (or as close as possible) to its antecedent and is invariably the first element in the relative clause. A,<<:\ <<^n_^ gabrd d-ezal the man who came huAta^ ^iaim^ atttd d-selqat the woman who went forth < 15 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC cm^jj ^n\iYi:\ < Vocabulary 3 NOUNS Zjfl};?^ (m) house, home yammd sea lahmd bread, food (in general) mayya (pi) water nbiyd prophet kespd money puqddnd commandment <<...\>- slihd messenger, apostle VERBS Aa<< ekal to eat nhet to go down, descend, dismount; (with '^al) to march against Ifni nsab to take, receive '^bad to do, make Mah to send, dispatch OTHERS it there is/are d(a)- who, which, that (relative pronoun) 16 LESSON THREE ineA Iwdt to, unto, into the presence of (someone) ^ layt there is/are not ^ man who? (distinguished from mdn and men by a dot on top) ni. '^ad up to, as far as, until Tii. '^am C^amm-) with Exercise 3 Read and translate: S^^"7a\ A,<< ^ 1 uy^ai < • «<')n^\-T>rt «<'->\-r> <<^:oi;3 20 .< 17 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC .<<^nhii ^hun < •<<.tAv <<'q>vi^\ ^NRIMIC\ <<^NLA:3A ^^niu 30 Translate into Syriac: 1. There is a man in the house. 2. Who sent them the messenger who went to the city? 3.1 went down to the river with her in the morning. 4. We have no money. 5. She took water from the man. 6. They told me about the food they ate. 7. They killed the man who transgressed the law. 8. The prophet received the law on the mountain. 9. She did not eat the food we made. 10. Do you have any money in the house? 18 Lesson Four § 4.1 Possessive Pronouns. The pronominal enclitics given in §3.1 are also attached to singular nouns to indicate possession. The stem of the noun to which they are attached is obtained by dropping the final -d of the lexical (emphatic) form. Thus, from baytd: bayteh his house ^ 19 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC § 4.2 Noun-Noun Possession. There are three ways to express possession involving two or more nouns in Syriac. (1) The first, the construct, involves changes in the stem of the first noun. As its use is limited, it will be dealt with later (§10.3). (2) In the second, the first noun, the thing possessed or limited, is in the emphatic state, and the second, the possessor or limiter, follows d-, as in the following: <<'\rM^ baytd d-gabrd the man's house < <<\3L4:\ § 4.3 The Pronoun Koll. The pronoun koll, usually spelled with• out wdw, means 'all' when it is followed by a noun in the emphatic state or by an enclitic pronoun, as <:TAa kolleh 'all of it (m)' and ^gcrAa kollhon 'all of them.' With noun complements, koll is commonly followed by an anticipatory pronoun that agrees in gender and num• ber with the following noun, as < 20 LESSON FOUR <<^A;N "TIA^AA koll-meddem everything koll-ndS everybody 73CI. koll yom every day §4.4 Pronominal Anticipation with Prepositions. Prepositions with noun complements are often anticipated by a redundant prepo• sition with a pronominal enclitic complement agreeing with the noun complement of the following, "real" prepositional phrase. Thus, either < Vocabulary 4 NOUNS dahbd gold b'^eldbdbd enemy <<\->. 21 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC VERBS ^TVi. "^dar to help Tuis pqad to command, order .snT rdap to drive on, persecute; (with bdtar) to pursue rhet to run fi-ii- Sbaq to leave, abandon; (with /-) to forgive OTHERS < Exercise 4 Read and translate: .v^nn < .v/>^«nn -A '\:\^ <<\ 10 .v^^eA COiiAicA <<^\'33 .At 11 .v£KTi03 < 22 LESSON FOUR .^cnn^ ^tL^cHT 15 .a=i<< ^^c\ <<:3Xi nj^ < Sv-^^2ai<< i/^ ^n'lvn < Translate into Syriac: 1. We left our servant in the village. 2.1 ran from my enemy's village. 3. The king pursued the enemy of his people throughout the land. 4. The servant took his king's gold and fled from the land. 5. You took everything from me. 6. The man took everything from his house and went down to the sea. 23 Lesson Five § 5.1 Noun Plurals: Emphatic State. The plural of a noun in the emphatic state is made by (1) changing the -d termination of a mas• culine-type noun to -e, or (2) by changing the -td termination of feminine-type nouns to -dtd. Sydme dots are placed over all plural nouns, most of which could not otherwise be distinguished ortho• graphically from the singular. Sydme dots may come anywhere in the word, but if there is a res in the word, the dots combine with the dot of the resd&\. SINGULAR PLURAL masc. <<:.i.\-r ^/iM apostle < < 24 LESSON FIVE change from the singular. Melle is feminine plural even though its form is that of a masculine plural; abdhdtd, regardless of its form, is masculine plural. (c) Other, unpredictable irregularities are exemplified by the fol• lowing: qritd village ^C^ca quryd villages atttd woman <^ neSSe women baytd house MASCULINE ^r\=Li>. '^abde < Vocabulary 5 NOUNS < 25 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC ^T<\\ napSd (f) pi napSdtd soul, breath of Hfe; (with pronominal enclitics) -self, as CN^'VI napSeh himself, yCKTiacai napShon themselves Exercise 5 Read and translate: .<<^[ul:v;7ii cusT^ei <<\aj^ cia4j<< 3 - < .\Y,ri A ^^e\ <<3a. <<3i3n\\i .an^ 14 .<<'.'T>-r\ 26 LESSON NVE .^ .< Translate into Syriac: 1. The men lived in the villages of the kingdom. 2. The angels descended from heaven. 3. There is no water in the rivers of the land. 4. The women transgressed the laws of the kings of the kingdom. 5. We drove the servants of the enemies from all the temples of our land. 27 Lesson Six § 6.1 Independent Pronouns. Following is the set of independent pronouns. These are used as sentence subjects of verbless sentences and for stressing the pronominal subject of a verb. 3 m cm hu hennon f um hi hennen 2 m ^<< att atton f -ini<< att yirii<< atten 1 c < § 6.2 The Short Pronouns as Copulas. The following shortened pronouns are used as copulas ('is, are'): 3m cm -u (-w) -ennon f -i(-y) -ennen 2m -(a)tt -(a)tton f -(a)tt -(a)tten 1 c -na -nan The third-person copulas are used with both the first- and the second-person pronouns, although the corresponding first- and sec• ond-person copulas also occur. < 28 LESSON SIX .»Si(hi<< atton tammdn-atton. You are there. The copulas may occur anywhere in the sentence, after subject or predicate. <<.i.\-r < ei .o § 6.3 Third-Person Plural Pronouns as Direct Objects. The third-person plural short pronouns, and only they of the independent pronouns, are used as direct objects of verbs. Although they are written separate, they should be considered as quasi-enclitic. .^<< -Aat Slah-ennon. He sent them. .,^<< ^\\,n qetlet-ennon. I killed them. .y^< s^r^ dbar-ennen. He led them (f). The other direct-object pronouns will be taken up in §7.3. § 6.4 Demonstratives. The same words are used as both demon- 29 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC strative adjectives and demonstrative pronouns. They are as follows. SINGULAR PLURAL this (m) < Vocabulary 6 NOUNS <<^ttia knuStd assembly, synagogue ^C^nA^a mac?Z7ra wilderness <<.A3a melhd (f) salt pagrd body ruhd (f) spirit' VERB dbar to lead, guide OTHERS A<< dp so, so also n d(a)- that (subordinating conjunction) < ^Ruha is feminine except in the phrases <£»«on ruhd d-qudSa and 30 LESSON SIX hdnen (f pi) that < Exercise 6 Read and translate: 'ievcTi ciiJ^aci < ^,At -. S<<.j3iacn <<^c\->\'Ta 31 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC .cTi'i^an ei\_j< S<<\3toa\ ^<< cii:33 26 Scni^a < Translate into Syriac: 1. This is the assembly of all the peoples of the land. 2. Those men are in the wilderness. 3. Are you the man whose wife killed herself? 4. There is no salt in our house. 5. The angels went up into heaven. 6. These messengers led them to the kings' cities. 7. Who is it that pursued the enemy as far as the river? 8. This man abandoned his wife in the village. 32 Lesson Seven § 7.1 Inflection of Ill-Weak Verbs. Most verbs whose third radi• cal consonant is weak, i.e., originally w ory, have slightly modified inflections in the perfect. The vast majority of these verbs appear in the 3rd masculine singular with the ending -d, as bnd 'to build.' The inflection is as follows. 3m bnd bnaw f bndt .^\^ bnay 2m bnayt bnayton f bnayt bnayten 1 c 2iUi3 bnet bnayn Note especially the pattern of the first-person singular. The second inflectional pattern of Ill-weak verbs—much less common—is like that of Mi 'to be glad.' The inflection is as fol• lows. 3m Mi Mi f hedyat Mi 2m hdiyt Miyton f Miyt Miyten 1 c hdit Miyn Note that the 3rd-person feminine singular is absolutely regularly formed, while the ISt-person singular is like bnet, but with the vowel As the transcription shows, the -t of the 2nd persons is not spirantized; the -t of the Ist-person singular is spirantized. 33 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC § 7.2 The Perfect of Hwd. The perfect inflection of hwd 'to be' is exactly like that of bnd. 3m hwd evcwi f hwdt 2m AuCKTl hwayt f hwayt hwayten 1 c hwet hwayn However, when this verb is used as the past copula, the initial h- is silenced with the linea occultans throughout the inflection. As a copula, -wd is treated as an enclitic. .< § 7.3 The Perfect with Object Suffixes. The objective pronominal enclitics, which are suffixed directly onto a verb, are basically the same as the set of enclitics I given in §4.1; an important exception is the first-person singular objective enclitic -an (with otiose yod). The 3rd-person plural enclitics are not used as object suffixes (see §6.2). With the vowel-initial enclitics (3 masc. sing, -eh, 3 fem. sing. -dh, 2 masc. sing, -dk, 2 fem sing, -ek, 1 sing, and pi. -an) the verbal stem of the 3rd masc. sing, verb (CCaQ CCeC) undergoes a change in pattern to CaCC-, the third radical consonant remaining spiran• tized. The 1st sing. (CeCCet) and the 3rd fem. sing. (CeCCat) both change to CCaCt- before vowel-initial suffixes. All revert to their original patterns with the 2nd pi. suffixes (-kon, -ken), which are consonant-initial. Thus, from rdap 'to drive': An'H RDAP Anan^ REDPAT/REDPET + 3 masc. sing, <^an^ radpeh 34 LESSON SEVEN + 2 fem. sing. radpek rdaptek + 1 sing. radpan rdaptan + 3 masc. pi. .an^ rdap-ennon ^<< redpat/redpet- ennon + 3 fem. pi. rdap-ennen redpat/redpet- ennen + 2 masc. pi. rdapkon redpatkon/ redpetkon + 2 fem. pi. rdapken redpatken/ redpetken + 1 pi. radpan rdaptan As in the possessive construction, the use of anticipatory object pronouns is quite common, e.g., .< NOUNS < 35 INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC < Exercise 7 Read and translate: .<<^a^ CTA^ <<.nA <<'i34 . .^cA